Minnesota teen planned school massacre, had explosives, guns ready

A Minnesota teen has been arrested and accused of preparing to carry out a mass shooting at his school, police say.

John La Due, 17, was picked up by police on Tuesday and was charged Thursday with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of possessing explosive devices and two counts of first-degree criminal damage to property, reports KSTP. He was arrested after police looked into several small explosive devices were found near a Waseca school back in March.

La Due was discovered at a storage facility with a locker full of bomb-making materials after someone called in about a suspicious-looking teen hanging around the area. A search of his home turned up several guns, explosives and his written strategy for the attack. Capt. Chris Martenson said, “We believed La Due planned to carry out his attack in the next few weeks.”

After being arrested, he willingly spoke with police and said he was first planning on shooting his parents and sister before starting a fire away from the school to draw attention, reports Mankato Free Press. From there he’d begin his planned massacre at the Waseca Junior/High School. La Due allegedly said his plan was to kill as many people as possible until a SWAT team arrived and put him down.

One of the items police picked up was a notebook where La Due wrote about being a fan of other school shootings, such as Columbine and Virginia Tech, but also wrote about how their plans were flawed.